We’re delighted to announce that Michael Olise has turned into prime Arjen Robben
Michael Olise has made an impressive start to life at Bayern Munich – and their sporting director has already felt compelled to compare Olise to two of the finest attackers to ever grace the Allianz Arena.
“Michael is a player who, like a young (Franck) Ribery or a young (Arjen) Robben, can achieve extraordinary things,” Max Eberl recently enthused.
For a player who was playing in the Football League at Reading less than four years ago, his journey into one of Europe’s brightest young footballers has not been an entirely unpredictable one.
“His love of football was always there,” Scott Marshall, who coached him at under-23 level at Reading, told The Athletic in 2021.
“When you give him responsibility, he grows. His talent on the ball is exceptional. He deals with it really well. He manipulates the ball and finds spaces high up the pitch.”
With Bayern Munich facing a difficult away game at Eintracht Frankfurt, and struggling to show an emphatic response to their limp Champions League defeat at Aston Villa, Olise took the match by the scruff of its neck and scored a characteristically classy goal.
The 23-year-old was perfectly placed on the edge of the penalty area to receive Harry Kane’s knockback and ride an opposition challenge with ease.
As the Frankfurt defence floundered, Olise opened his body and curled an unstoppable effort past Kaua Santos in a perfect homage to Robben.
Bayern eventually succumbed to a late equaliser in the Waldstadion, but Olise had already demonstrated his uncanny resemblance to a club legend.
Michael Olise scores his fourth Bundesliga goal for Bayern 🔥 pic.twitter.com/SpYVUPC0Qq
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) October 6, 2024
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“From the minute you saw him, you could see that special ability,” former Reading team-mate Tom McIntyre told The Athletic.
“He’s so comfortable on the ball. He’s so confident, which sets him apart from other decent players I have played with. He wanted to receive the ball in tight areas.”
There was little question about Olise’s talent, but his infamously taciturn manner startled a few observers when he first arrived in Germany.
Whenever a top young talent joins an elite European club, there are always questions about whether they’ll cope with the pressure. No matter their ability, the expectations of playing at Bayern Munich can turn the most self-confident of personalities into wallflowers.
All this meant there were eyebrows raised when Olise barely strung two sentences together during his official unveiling at Bayern in August.
When asked whether he preferred creating or scoring goals, the former Palace star shook his head, smiled politely and said, “Whatever… Both.”
On the differences between the Premier League and the Bundesliga, he could only say, “I think, probably it will be a bit different but, I don’t know…”
“Some people don’t fully understand how he is,” McIntyre said. “He’ll shake your hand in the morning and it’ll be a bit of a soft handshake.
“Sometimes he would ignore you and not say hello. He’s not a bad person at all, though — if you speak to him, he’s such a nice guy. He rubbed coaches up the wrong way sometimes coming through the academy because he was like that.”
Olise has taken the step up from Selhurst Park to the Allianz Arena, amusingly unbothered with public appearances and letting his magical feet do all the talking.
Eberl’s comparison might have felt hubristic at first. It’s quickly becoming incredibly astute.
By Michael Lee